The Big Picture

Concrete Utopia, directed by Um Tae-hwa, is a compelling work of dystopian cinema that explores the capacity for violence in humanity. The film delves into themes of interpersonal and socioeconomic struggles amidst the spectacle of the end of the world, creating a layered and thought-provoking narrative. With great production design, compelling performances, and a dark sense of humor, Concrete Utopia is an honest portrayal of a broken world.

When Concrete Utopia, the latest from South Korean director Um Tae-hwa, was one of the films to show at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, it was a work I put as one of my most anticipated of the entire event. Where many others on that list proved to be just okay despite commanding performances, this one that the director co-wrote with Lee Shin-ji feels like it was more than worthy to have gotten that spot looking back on it all these months later. With great production design, compelling performances all around, and a sufficiently layered script, it asks more soaring questions about humanity’s capacity for violence when pushed to the brink just as it builds its broken world from the ground up.

Concrete Utopia Survivors from a massive earthquake struggle for a new life in Seoul. Release Date December 15, 2023 Director Tae-hwa Eom Cast Park Seo-joon , Lee Byung-hun , Park Bo-young , Kim Sun-young Rating Not Rated Runtime 130 minutes Writers Tae-hwa Eom , Lee Shin-ji

Now that it’s getting a wider theatrical release, South Korea’s Oscar submission feels like a sturdy gem of the season that shouldn’t be slept on even as it could far too easily be. Instead of watching a poor imitation of a South Korean filmmaker like Squid Game: The Challenge that jettisons all the narrative and thematic interests from the work it is drawing from, anyone would be better served with a film like Concrete Utopia. Not only is it an often thrilling work of dystopian cinema, but it also effectively explores a more classically sinister story of interpersonal and socioeconomic struggles amidst the spectacle of the end of the world.

What Is ‘Concrete Utopia’ About?

Set in Seoul, the film throws us into the aftermath of a massive earthquake that has decimated everything as far as the eye can see. Every building has collapsed, and it seems like there is little hope left for humanity to survive this disaster. That is, except for the Hwang Gung Apartments. Where everything else has fallen, it has somehow remained standing. Things are still incredibly dire, with the reality of limited food and resources looming over everything, though the residents soon begin to create a life for themselves. All of this is captured in simple scenes that still pack a bunch with one particular use of montage, eliciting a grim chuckle. The thematic core to it is that this world is soon built on the suffering of others. Firstly, it involves kicking out anyone who is not a resident, which is already a flimsy designation from the start and only becomes even more pointedly meaningless throughout the film. They get sent out into the world, seemingly dooming them to death, while the “residents” stay behind and live in relative safety by comparison. However, it is soon apparent that not everything is what it seems in the community and their desperate attempts at salvation might be built upon a deception that calls the whole thing into question.

In many regards, Concrete Utopia feels it would make a great double feature with this year’s hilarious and horrifying paranoia-filled satire We Might As Well Be Dead. Both are built around people living in an apartment building that is supposedly the last refuge out there and the way the residents can quickly turn on anyone else, including each other, out of fear. Most critically, neither let their characters off the hook for this as much as it sets out to understand them. The speed with which violence and persecution can take hold of their minds serves as the point. In this film’s eyes, humanity is always on the edge of such a descent.

There is also a darker humor to both films that, while more sharply focused in We Might As Well be Dead, also rears its head at key moments here. In one of the early massive confrontations outside the apartment where residents try to evict people who “don’t belong there” with them, which goes about as poorly as one could expect, there is something darkly absurd about how everything falls apart with people scrambling in the chaos. When the dust settles, this only makes it all the more terrifying to see it give rise to a leader in Yeong-tak, played with increasingly quiet menace by Lee Byung-hun, who is clearly not the best person for their community and everyone else’s long-term survival. It all cuts a bit deeper while remaining what could be best called a crowd-pleaser. Nobody likes to believe they would place their faith in a fascist dictator, but this film lays out all too clearly how alluring this can be.

In the End, ‘Concrete Utopia’ Is Both Honest And Optimistic
Image via Lotte Entertainment

As the film becomes about the conflict between a handful of key characters, it takes on the machinations and trappings of a psychological thriller surrounding a mystery of sorts that we already know the answer to. What grounds it is the couple of Min-sung (Park Seo-joon) and Myung-hwa (Park Bo-young) who find themselves occasionally on opposite ends of the situation while still deeply caring about each other. As they must either decide to work alongside Yeong-tak or confront him before charting a potential new way forward, the film navigates that push and pull between their two perspectives. We begin to increasingly see how half of the duo is deluding themselves and the other is beginning to drift away as a result.

The dehumanization that leads to violence can poison any society because people are often fearful and, while they will also pay dearly for their fears when things inevitably collapse on them as well, it is everyone else who must bear the cost. There is a slimmer of hope that it finds in the rubble of this broken world that, much like our own, is often made worse by those living in it, making it all the more valuable to cling to when all else has been lost.

Rating: 8/10

Concrete Utopia is playing in select theaters in the U.S. starting December 8.

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